Hi my name is Susan Saldana. I have been an Licensed Vocational Nurse for over 14 years. This past January I began the RN program to advance my career. After I was accepted to the program and started I found out that I could only get 14,350 in financial aid to cover the tuition and the other $36,920 would have to be covered by applying for a Sallie Mae student loan. I had no idea it would be pretty much impossible to get approved for the loan.
They wanted a co-signer and every person who applied on my behalf was denied. The school rules said that I would be dismissed for non payment but they never dismissed me. I continued throughout the time I was going to school to apply for loans and had also applied for 15 scholarships. I was never able to get it taken care of. On the last week of school we had a big test we had to pass in order to graduate the program.
I found out right after I finished that I had passed and was congratulated by my instructors. After leaving the school I had received an email from the school telling me that I still owed a balance and that my transcripts would not be sent off to the board of registered nursing. On the last day of school 8/30/19 I was allowed to do my fingerprints and application for the board and even scheduled to come back the following week to continue my application.
The day I was scheduled to go in to do my application I was sent an email saying that my appointment had been postponed and that I needed to contact financial aid. I met with the campus director and assistant and was basically told that I needed to get the balance taken care of in order to proceed.This past week 9/10/19 I was able to get a loan and make a payment of $15,000 but I still owe $21,920.
I received a call yesterday from one of the admissions administrators that my enrollment agreement needed to be completed and that they were trying to help me and after I completed it the lady told me I was going to get an email that had good news and when I read the email it said if I had made a payment I may be able to march (participate in graduation). I responded asking about my transcripts and application to be able to take my boards and was told that according to policy they cannot send them off until my balance is paid in full. I felt like they got my hopes up for nothing. I’m asking for help please to make my dreams of becoming an RN come true. Thank you so much.
